Want to Make More Money? Go Back to School!

Lately, I’ve been more vocal about the importance of looking for ways to boost your income. Cutting costs is awesome — don’t stop — but if you really want to supercharge your debt reduction or your saving, you have to look for ways to earn more money.

“That’s great,” some commenters have said, “but how do we earn more money.” That’s a fair question, though it’s much tougher to answer than, “How do I spend less?” For the most part, we all spend money on the same things. But we all earn money in different ways. We each have different work ethics, abilities, and styles. It’s much more difficult to generalize about ways to earn more money.

All the same, it’s a topic we’ve explored many times in the past here at Get Rich Slowly, in articles like:

If you’re interested in earning more money, take some time to browse through the entrepreneurship archives here at GRS. (It may actually be time to update some of that material so that new readers can see it!)

Today, though, I wanted to share one fantastic way to improve your earning power, one that often gets overlooked: education.

Back to school
When I was sick of working for the family business in 1998 (and it looked like Kris and I might be moving to New Haven, Connecticut), I knew I had to increase my marketability. Nobody was going to hire a psych major whose only work experience was selling boxes. What did I do? I started taking classes at the community college and a local university.

In eighteen months, I earned the equivalent of a computer science minor. I went from knowing only the archaic BASIC language to being able to program in C and C++ and Perl and Tcl/Tk. (And, I’ll admit, Visual BASIC.) More than that, I understood the concepts of programming, which could be applied to other languages, as well.

Although our move to New Haven never materialized, I put my new skills to good use. First, I rewrote our archaic software at the box factory. (For you geeks, we had been running programs written by my father in GFA BASIC on an Atari ST.) Next, I picked up a job programming computers for a researcher at another nearby university. And then one of his colleagues hired me. For most of 1999, I worked three 20-hour-a-week jobs. I made a lot of money — too bad I hadn’t learned to put it to good use.

I’ve heard similar stories from all sorts of people, including friends and GRS readers. In fact, one of the entries in last spring’s video contest came from a woman who is just starting her own mission to improve her education. And she’s doing it the smart way: on the company dime.

Not every company will pay for its employees to go back to school — but many do. And, as Allison says, if yours doesn’t, it may be in your best interest to pitch your boss on the benefits of such a program.

At the box factory, we’ve always had a policy that we’ll reimburse for one class per term. But you know what? Few people have ever taken advantage of the offer, and that’s a shame. Even if you don’t use your company’s education reimbursement program to further your career, you can always use it pursue other interests. (I took many writing classes on the box company’s dime.)

So, that’s just one way to earn more money: Better your education. And — if you can do it — have your employer pay for classes!

Note: One of my favorite articles from the archives (and one I don’t think I’ve ever linked back to) is about how to get a college education for $10 a course. You can’t earn a degree this way, but you can get lectures from some top U.S. professors. Actually, this is another article I should update. There are a lot of new, free ways to listen and view college lectures from around the country.

I am a staunch advocate of further education. My wife took two years off and went back to school for an MPA degree, and it was the best thing she ever did. Her previous job paid well, but didn’t have a lot of opportunities to move up the ladder. I encourage her to go back full time and pursue her interest and it worked out really well. She finished grad school and has been working in a job that she really likes for 3 years now. She is making more money, work less, and is a lot happier. MPA is similar to an MBA, but it’s for the public sector (NGO and government.) I am also thinking about going back to grad school at some point, maybe get a degree in Oceanography. It would be great to get paid for sailing around and collecting data. ;)

Need more money? Go back to school. Makes sense, but it’s not only the degree that will earn you more money. The knowledge is very important as well.

Instead of listening to the radio on the way to work, listen to an educational CD. Maybe you’re interested in improving your financial state – there’s a CD at the library that can help you with that. Interested in real estate? There’s a CD for that. Want to learn a second language? There’s a CD for that too!

Thanks retirebyforty for the info on your wife’s success. I decided to get my MPP and am about halfway through the program. Frankly, I absolutely love the program and am looking forward to working in policy and/or administration. I always think eduction is worth while. I am thinking PhD or law school as well at some point. Would certainly do it on the company’s dime, if possible. Most of our local colleges and universities offer free tuition for the employee and their spouse and children for full-time (and sometimes part-time) employees. Interesting that one could work as a groundskeeper or clerk and get an education for free…. I put myself through my BA working as a secretary; I wish that I had known to look for a secretary job at a college to get the free tuition. Would have saved me a small fortune.

Just watch out for the terms of your company’s tuition program, if there is one. When I was hired, HR made a big deal about the tuition program at my company. There were classes I was interested in, and I checked with my supervisor and our HR generalist about my eligibility, dollar limits, what programs qualified, etc. Six months later when I had a better job offer, I learned that the tuition benefit was “paid off” over my next year of work, and if I quit I owed the company half of the tuition “benefit”.

Note that this only works going in certain directions. If J.D. already had a bachelor’s degree in computer science, going back to school to earn the equivalent of a minor in psychology probably wouldn’t have done him a ton of good, income-wise.

It’s more important that you know how to do something of value (like program computers) than it is for you to hold certifications and degrees. Employers realize this. This is why certain people who never finished college have no problem with employment — they can demonstrate their knowledge via their accomplishments (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are obvious examples). Sure, this doesn’t apply for professions that legally require certain certifications, but most jobs aren’t like that.

Rosa, if I owned a company with a tuition program I’d do the same thing. The point of giving education as a benefit is to help your employees move up in your own company. Then it’s a benefit to both. If someone takes my free education and walks off immediately I’d be ticked!

I like the ideas for free education or taking classes in the evening, etc.; however, I don’t think people should go in debt for education. ESPECIALLY AFTER A CERTAIN AGE. I helped my mother in law, who was 60 at the time, pay off the rest of her student loan. The raise in income couldn’t have been that much compared to her interest payments and the # of working years.

I am going back to school this winter, but I will be the one paying for it (no employer and on disability). Its good to see articles encouraging adults to go back. Thankfully I’m *only* 32 so I still have some working years ahead of me.

Another caution about company-paid classes: My company reimburses tuition only for education programs that will increase your value as an employee.

One of my direct reports is working on a computer science degree, which is reimbursed so long as she keeps a B average. She doesn’t need that for her present job, but the company uses a lot of IT folks and there should be a need for her skills when she’s done.

But the company doesn’t see any need for me to be better educated. I already have a professional degree, and no advanced degree is required for any position above mine. In practice – at least at my company – the lower-level you are, the more likely you are to be able to take advantage of the tuition benefit.

Side note — My husband & I also are big fans of the Teaching Company. You truly can learn from the best, on your own schedule. We don’t re-sell, because he likes to listen to them more than once; so we’ve switched to buying the much-cheaper downloads and listening to them on an mp3 player.

I agree that going back to school is one way that someone might go about increasing their income. HOWEVER, I think there are important caveats to this that haven’t been mentioned.

Not all education will increase your income. Not all majors/classes are created equal. Not all higher education institutions are created equal. There are many, many ways one might increase their education and find it of little value to their bottom line financially.

To put it bluntly, I know plenty of college graduates who are working the crap retail and call center jobs I worked when I was in high school, and are loaded down with student loan repayments to top it off. That’s a pretty substantial negative net effect.

If you’re looking to transfer to a new field altogether, or if you’re starting out with a low skill level and wish to gain skills in a certain field, or you have the skills but need the piece of paper to compete with other applicants to gain entry in a new field- then absolutely, taking the right classes will help.

I was actually rather surprised at the good deals the community colleges had to offer when my husband returned to school to get his degree for the latter reason. And at how few people took advantage of those deals. In my husband’s case, the education was a substantial benefit. His new career is much better paying, makes him happier, and the associated costs (income lost while being a full time student + student loans) will be paid off in just over one year.

But from my present career standing, I do not stand to gain a whole lot from going back to school. I’ve already got the terminal degree, and I have no desire to change fields. (And if you ask me about the value of the doctoral degree- despite having completed one myself, I do not pretend that it has much utility in 99% of real-world applications. The cost-benefit is really not fantastic for the vast majority of people.)

It really is individualized by situation, especially given the current economy. Education is good for the mind, and good for our society, but a universal prescription for education is not good for the bottom financial line in every situation.

Many degrees and classes are WORTHLESS. It is a myth that going to school and working hard and getting good grades will get you ahead in jobs. I think so many people going to college are getting scammed into paying enormous amounts of money for degrees with little or no actual value.

Even traditionally worthwhile degrees in areas like law are no longer providing good job prospects. It seems like the only people making money off of higher education these days are the people working in higher education.

I am back in graduate school now and loving it. My employer is paying for some of it, but I also belong to LOTS of professional organizations, and they all have continuing education or professional education grants. I plan to apply to each one in turn until I am finished.

I have a degree and have been out of the field awhile. So, I decided to get recent experience by doing a volunteer internship. I learned alot and applied for jobs. No luck there as I was told I was not an employee. I am currently taking courses in hopes of that helping me as well. So far, I still don’t have any job offers. So, I am in the retail business, working with high school kids and making $9.00/hr. I still look for jobs and hope that all of this cash that’s being spent for courses works out in my favor at some point. Better sooner than later.

I think going back to school is good as long as you can afford it and the market is ready to hire in your field. Some employers may offer tuition reimbursement but there are several strings attached. So, ask HR if you are able to apply for it.

I don’t think that getting more education is a guaranteed way to increase your income. Alot of that is dependent on forces beyond your control.

In case anybody does want to try out any Teaching Company classes, I just got an email from them with a sale — 80% off all CD-classes and free shipping, through midnight tomorrow. Coupon code is: THGV.

(And I’m not affiliated with them and don’t get a cut of any sales; just a long-time customer.)

My husband was lucky enough to work for a company that paid for his B.S. in computer science and even allowed him to take a term off work at 75% pay to go to school full-time to finish up. Lucky for him because the company sold his division right after the term was over. Since he had his B.S. then, he was hired as an engineer at another company that paid for his M.S. in computer science. So the investment by Tektronix was wonderful for him and for the company that hired him. Thankfully, there were no strings attached to either company’s tuition program, and we never had to pay a penny out-of-pocket. I paid for my own B.S., but some of my master’s was paid by my employer. When I worked for a large insurance company in Portland, I took in-house classes to get various certifications. I didn’t know if I’d stay in that company (I didn’t), but I think taking advantage of any class being offered is worthwhile.

I agree with with the posters who caution going back to grad school to get a better education.

I am currently in the middle of a career change, two-thirds of the way through an advanced Finance qualification, but so far the extra education has landed me very little in the way of getting to the top of the resume pile. Make extra sure there is a return on the your investment of time and money.

Here is a great article I found regarding job prospects from education in the current economy:

While not leading to a degree, you can also take free courses from many schools at academicearth.org, and Yale has a bunch at oyc.yale.edu. I’m one of those who believe the truly educated never graduate. Also check out your state schools. In my state, senior citizens can take classes for free as long as there is space available after all paying students have registered.

Higher education has morphed into many different offerings, some of which may help you earn more and some of which may just as likely cost you. A lot depends on what you expect to get from the education.

If your main interest is the financial gain:

(1) Is the gain going to be coming from the degree/certificate or from the actual content? If degree, I think the most value comes from community college and then onto a low-cost public U if you need the bachelor’s. If content is key, you may be able to get it from online sources, community education and books that don’t provide a degree. Community colleges and less research-intense universities will typically provide better instruction than a research university, in my experience, because of the incentives for faculty.

(2) Are you planning to do better at your current company or do you want to switch to a bigger/fancier company, particularly out-of-state? If the latter, bigger name universities often come with more access to Fortune 500 recruiters. I would still say go public flagship in your state, but even some public U’s are very expensive now, so consider the costs/benefits.

(3) Would you expect to gain much from the networking opportunities and alumni connections? If so, then it may make sense to pursue a degree at a higher-ranked school because they are likely to have a larger cohort to network with and more programs designed for that purpose. They will also have more extensive alumni programs and databases you can tap into. But again, it’s not usually cheap.

(4) Do you absolutely need to have everything online and someone to walk you through every step carefully? That is what most of the for-profit universities use as their strength, but it is expensive to get that hand-holding. Community colleges are putting a lot of courses online now, and the university where I work is moving to more distance learning to stay competitive, so you may not need to pay the extra amount for U Phoenix or its brethren. I haven’t been a student at one, I only know they cost a lot, and have been investigated by Congress for their shady marketing practices (though frankly, all schools should be examined in that way).

If you pursue a degree (vs. a class or two), you should look at all the possible ways to get that paid for by someone else – your company, workforce redesign grants, school assistantships, scholarships, etc.

All that said, the past world in which degree = better job just isn’t true anymore. A degree can be a necessary hurdle for some positions, but it isn’t a magic bullet.

And lastly, if you pursue more education please do it in something you find inherently interesting and important. I see so many students in class who are just there for the credit hours and it is a miserable experience for both sides when that happens.

I am sorry to comment again. Really. But I feel guilty over inadvertently providing only partial info in my earlier comment. I just tried to use the coupon code I provided for The Teaching Company, and it only gets you free shipping. To get the course discount, you also have to enter a “priority code,” which I found buried in the email, and which is priority code 49466. Sigh.

I agree that higher education CAN boost your income if everything goes right. I have a bachelor’s degree, without which I would not have my current position and would still be working for $8 an hour with no benefits. I am also currently getting my master’s degree. In my case, I think this will work well for me. My current employers know that I am working on the degree (and encouraged me to do it) and plan to give me a position at a much higher level of pay once I get the degree. While it is not guaranteed, I know they will do their best for me. Also, I got extremely lucky and got a scholarship that is paying 80% of my tuition. For me, it is worth the risk. It is a lot of work, though.
Don’t forget there are scholarships and grants out there, and if you’re a non-traditional student that may work in your favor.

Along with employer benefits, don’t forget about federal and state grants! Sure, we’re not all eligible for them, but fill out the FAFSA, particularly if you’re a single parent. You’ll never know for certain what assistance you can get if you don’t ask.

Turns out, my tuition and fees are completely paid and I end up with money in my pocket. Who knew?

Generally, if you’re part of a union you can’t negotiate your raise or benefits. Even if you were the best employee of all time, you get the amount that the collective agreement says you get. (which certainly doesn’t always fall under the stereotypically “cushy union” heading – even a penny-pinching Non Profit organization can be unionized!)

Aside from getting a promotion (with a fixed raise), what can a unionized employee do to help themselves earn more money?

I don’t know that going back to school is the best answer all the time. I’ll give you the example of my companion who is 36. He just started school again full time and is not working to do so. He’ll end up spending $50K to get a degree but how much income will be have lost in the meanwhile, and how much additional debt will he take on to live while in school? He’ll be 40 when finished and this is not for an advanced degree. Not the best choice, in my humble opinion.

Yep! After not being able to find work in my field for over 5 years now, and having pinched every last penny til it screamed, and living below poverty level the entire time, I decided there would never be enough jobs in my field again (Graphic Design), and since I don’t have any CEO family members who can get me hired on in their company, the only other option was going back to college for yet another degree.

So now, I’m in college again – started this past fall – for a degree in Accounting. I had put a lot of thought into it, and even went on the GRS forums here before I enrolled and asked if it was a good idea. Everyone seemed pretty unanimous in saying it was a good idea, so I’m on my way to a Master’s Degree in Accounting.

The only thing that scares me is the fact that EVERYONE seems to be doing the exact same thing as me: Getting a degree in accounting. I hope it doesn’t turn out like graphic design did…where jobs were plentiful when I was going to college, but where the field quickly got way over-saturated with people getting their degrees in the exact same thing, and pretty soon, the jobs disappear. Hopefully, this won’t happen in Accounting. *fingers crossed*

Hi, thanks for the article. I recently just went through an intense internal debate about getting my MBA for the past month.

I am a software developer in a stable job that pays well. But I was looking to do more with my life. I was encouraged to go for my MBA; I already took the GMAT exam and scored well on it.

Well… I came to the conclusion it wasn’t worth it. The time and tuition cost is quite extreme (although you will make that money back and then some over the course of a lifetime). I realized that I don’t really want to become an ibanker, consultant, marketing exec, etc. and I actually would prefer to try to become my own boss on an entrepreneurial venture (in which an MBA is not necessary at all).

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My name is J.D. Roth. I started Get Rich Slowly in 2006 to document my personal journey as I dug out of debt. Then I shared while I learned to save and invest. Twelve years later, I've managed to reach early retirement! I'm here to help you master your money — and your life. No scams. No gimmicks. Just smart money advice to help you get rich slowly. Read more.

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